Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

First, the recent cymbidium report. Last week’s new orchid blooms were these pretty pink ones:

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I posted a photo of this plant last year, under the title “Pretty in pink”. But last year it had only a couple flower stems, while this year it has many; and last year it bloomed a full month later than this year.

At this point my plant report veers briefly into a weather report, after which I return to plants, in particular a remarkable succulent — sometimes called evil genius — that blooms at the beginning of a warm season, and is now flourishing in the Arizona Cactus Garden at Stanford.

Caught on local public radio a little while back, a story about Lake Cachuma (in Santa Barbara County), saying that the water level in the lake had dropped by 60 feet in a fairly short period of time, to only 20% of capacity. We’re in a serious drought, and it’s being accentuated by warming (which increases evaporation from the lake).